REZA ASLAN:
Well, to be clear, I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament and fluency in Biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades who just happens to be a Muslim. So, it's not that I'm just some Muslim writing about Jesus. I am an expert with a PhD. in the history of religions. But I have been obsessed with Jesus--

REZA ASLAN:
Because it's my job as an academic. I am a professor of religion, including the New Testament. That's what I do for a living, actually. So, I mean-- it would be like asking a Christian why they would write a book about-- Islam; I'm not sure about that. But-- and honestly, I've been obsessed with Jesus for really 20 years. I've been studying his life and his work and the origins of Christianity both in an academic environment and on a personal level for about two decades. And, just to be clear, this is not some attack on Christianity. My mother is a Christian. My wife is a Christian. My brother-in-law is an evangelical pastor. Anyone who thinks that this book is an attack on Christianity has not read it yet.

LAUREN GREEN:
How are your findings different from what Islam actually believes about Jesus?

REZA ASLAN:Well, Islam doesn't believe that Jesus was crucified, first of all. Islam believes in the virgin birth. I mean-- Jesus was most definitely crucified, and my book does question the historicity of the virgin birth. So, again, I mean-- I know that we have mentioned this three times now, I'm not sure what my faith has to do with my 20 years of academic study of the New Testament.

LAUREN GREEN:
Right, exactly. What are your-- we're not talking about just people who disagree with you. Scholars, many scholars disagree with you, as well. But I wanted to get to the heart of--

REZA ASLAN:
Absolutely. And many scholars do agree with me. And--

LAUREN GREEN:
What are your conclusions about Jesus?

REZA ASLAN:
Well my conclusions about Jesus start by placing him in the world in which he lived. So I start with one fundamental truth that everyone agrees on, with Jesus: and that was that he was crucified. You have to understand that crucifixion in 1st-century Palestine was a punishment that Rome reserved exclusively for crimes against the state, like sedition or rebellion, treason, or insurrection. The thieves who were crucified alongside Jesus were not thieves. The Greek word, "lesthus" means "bandit." And bandit was the most common term in Jesus's time for an insurrectionist. What I say is, if you know nothing else about Jesus except that he was crucified, you know enough to understand what a troublemaker this guy must have been. The movement that he started was such a threat to the political stability of the empire that they actually had him arrested, tortured, and killed for it. So I start with that fundamental fact, and then I take the claims of the gospels, as every single Biblical scholar for 200 years has done, and look at them in light of the history of this world that we know. And what's interesting about Jesus's world is that we know a lot about it, thanks to the Romans, who were very good at documentation. And the picture that arises from this is of a real political revolutionary who took on the political powers of his time on behalf of the poor, and the meek, the dispossessed, the marginalized-- who sacrificed himself in his cause for those those who couldn't stand up for himself--

LAUREN GREEN:
Okay, but my question--

REZA ASLAN:
And whose death ultimately launched the greatest religion in the world.

LAUREN GREEN:
Yeah, I wanted to ask-- actually, there's another ? coming, and I want to get this on before we end this interview. Taylor Cain just says, "So, your book is written with clear bias and you're trying to say that's academic. That's like having a Democrat write a book about why Reagan wasn't a good Republican. It just doesn't work." What do you say to that?

LAUREN GREEN:
But Reza, you're not just writing about religion from the point of view of an observer. I mean the thing about it is--

REZA ASLAN:
Why would you say that?

LAUREN GREEN:
You're pointing yourself as a scholar, and I've interviewed scholars who have written books on the resurrection, on-- you know, the real Jesus, and-- who are looking at the same information that you're saying. To say that your information is somehow different from theirs is really not being honest here.

REZA ASLAN:
I think my interpr-- Ma'am, my information is not different from theirs at all. I'm afraid that-- it sounds like you haven't actually read my book, or seen what I've said about the resurrection, or about Jesus, or about his claims. I think you might be surprised in what I say. And there have been thousands of scholars who have written about this very same topic, many who disagree with me, many who agree with me. That's the thing about scholarship: is that it's a debate over ancient history. And I am one of those people making that debate. I think it's unfair to just simply assume because of my particular faith background that there is some agenda on this book. That would be like saying that a Christian who writes about Muhammad is, by definition-- you know, not able to do so because he has some bias against it. And frankly, every book that's-- almost every book that's out there is by Christians.

REZA ASLAN:
Ma'am, the second page of my book says I'm a Muslim. Every single interview I have ever done on TV or on print says I'm a Muslim. You may not be familiar with me, but I'm actually quite a prominent Muslim thinker in the United States. I've written a number of books about Islam. It's just simply incorrect...

LAUREN GREEN:
Okay.

REZA ASLAN:
...To say that media isn't saying that I'm a Muslim. I would actually encourage you to actually try to find media that doesn't mention my biography, which, by the way, again, is on the second page of the book.

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The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

Religion scholar Dr. Reza Aslan, who wrote the book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, was interviewed by Fox News' Lauren Green for Spirited Debate. Rather than reviewing the book and its findings, Green chose to attack Aslan’s credentials for writing a book on Jesus, as Aslan is a Muslim. This…did not go over well.